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Thursday, September 15, 2011

I'm submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #11: Mid-Autumn Treats (September 2011) hosted by Happy Home Baking because this is my first time making pastry food, so I might just try my luck!

Every year, around the month of September or early October, I'll be very happy and always looking forward to the Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋节) because I'll get to eat one of my favorite Chinese bakery products, Mooncakes! Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Mooncake festival is the third major festival among four most important Chinese festivals that falls on the 15th day of the eighth month according to the Chinese calendar. It is celebrated by Chinese and Vietnamese people. This festival is for lunar worship and moon watching (you'll notice that the moon is especially big, round and bright on this day). We celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival by offering Mooncakes, an indispensable delicacy on this occasion, between friends or on family gatherings. We'll also carry brightly lit lanterns and light up lots of candles around the neighbourhoods, playgrounds and parks.

These are my precious cute paper lanterns that we hung in our previous house last year. (Year 2010)

The girls were delighted when I brought them downstairs with their Hello Kitty musical lanterns, some fireworks and candles. (Year 2010)

We'd lots of fun even if it was just playing with fireworks and candles among ourselves under the void-deck. (Year 2010)

Every year w/o fail, we'd go back to my parents-in-laws' house to have dinner together. (Year 2010)

This year's Mid-Autumn Festival is very special and different for us as compared to the previous years because I made my own mooncakes, my very first home-made mooncakes! Every year, I'll buy lots of mooncakes that come in different shapes (round or rectangular), sizes (big or small), traditional styles or contemporary styles for both our parents and ourselves. In my family, only me and my Mom eat mooncakes and I'd prefer snowskin mooncakes with salted egg yolks. My Mom would always keep those with yolks for me and now I keep the yolks for both my girls. They LOVE the yolks so much and would always fight over it! Why did I waited so long to make my own mooncakes no doubt the fact that I LOVE it so much and get to eat only once every year!? I seldom cooked after the birthed of my youngest girl, Cheeky as she's a super, extremely difficult baby to take care of. I even had to carry her in one hand while using the other to sweep the floor using the magic-clean stick! YEAH! I'm not exaggerating and all thanks to her for all my muscles now! Argh! It's only until Cathy, my helper came last year then I started to cook almost everyday otherwise we'd either buy back home, went over my parents or parents-in-laws house for dinner. Lucky it's all over now! I neverknow the process of making mooncakes is actually so simple and easy,especially the snowskin ones, until I saw Ann'srecipes! Ann of Anncoo Journal is a Singaporean who has a flare in baking cakes, cookies and pastries. She's one of the really creative and talented bakers I've came across during my past 6 months of blogging. Not only is she good at all these, she made beautiful handicrafts too! Hop over to Ann's blog after reading my post to check it out yourself and you'll believe what I say. I went through every of Ann's recipes for snowskin mooncakes plus a few googled sites and thought maybe I should try making my own too...? I bought all the ingredients needed and tried. I was over the moon when I finally succeeded after two failures in making the skin! My girls were the first to try on the mooncakes and they told me it's nice, smelt and tasted like those selling outside. Then I asked my Mom to try and she agreed but the skin was slightly too thick so for my 2nd batch, I rolled the skin real thin, almost translucent. This time, even my hubby and our friends praised me! They even asked to have more next year!
**I used Ann's recipe with slight modifications as I couldn't get the same type of flour that Ann used. The weight of both the skin and lotus paste fillings are based on my own estimations. It depends on the sizes of mooncake moulds used.

Ingredients :

300g Snowskin flour [from Gim Hin Lee] (I used glutinous rice flour instead as I couldn't find any Snowskin flour and this could be the reason why I can't get the right texture)

1Kg White lotus paste + *Pumpkin Seeds

200g Icing sugar (Sifted)

95g Criso Shortening [Ann used mooncake shortening from Sunlik]

Some Cooked Glutinous Rice Flour (Gao Fen 糕粉)

250g Pandan water (Cold)

⅓ Tsp Banana Essence (Optional)

Food/Natural Coloring (Optional)

*I added about half packet of pumpkin seeds to the lotus paste and mixed them together before dividing into balls of 28g each. This can be done first before making the skin, cover with cling paper and set aside in fridge.

Method :

Boil 1 L of water with 6 pandan leaves and store in fridge one or two days ahead

In a large bowl, add snowskin flour and icing sugar together, mix well. Then add in shortening to mix roughly using a spatula or wear a disposal hand glove.

Make a well in the center of mixture, add banana essence and slowly pour in cold pandan water, bit by bit until you get the right consistency of the dough.

Knead to soft dough (a bit sticky), cover and let it rest for 10mins. Then knead dough again until it is soft and not sticky anymore.

Divide dough into equal portion, add food/natural coloring (for different types of fillings-28g of balls each) and knead well until color is even. Divide into smaller balls of 25g each.

Flatten dough into a round shape with a rolling pin or your palm, place a ball of filling in the middle, wrap and seal it up.

Roll it into a ball and dust with some cooked glutinous rice flour (Gao Fen 糕粉). Dust the inside of the mould also and shake off excess flour.

With the sealed part of the skin facing down to the imprints of the mould (this is to cover-up the sealed part), press the ball down firmly. Knock mooncake out from mould and store in air-tight container.

Repeat with the rest of the dough and fillings until finish.

Chill snowskin mooncakes in fridge up to at least 4hrs before consume.

These are the first batch I made for my Mom to pray.

I made these using my bento egg moulds for the girls.

These are the 2nd batch I made for my parents-in-laws. I rolled the skin REAL thin as compared to the first.

I like these the most! Made with my heart-shaped egg mould and sprinkled some tiny hearts candies so that it don't looked so plain. Specially for our friend, an old pal of my hubby, a very nice guy and his friendly girlfriend. They really liked it and even asked for more next year.

I love this Hello Kitty mooncake too! Cheeky told me this is too cute and pretty that she don't bare to eat it! Hahaha

Cheeky made this in school but she didn't eat. She gave all to Cathy but wanted her to keep one little piece for me. She's really a sweetie to both of us, whatever she has, we're the ones she'll think of besides her sister. Love U, Baby!

We can have our favorite mooncakes whenever we feel like eating and needn't wait 'til next year from now on!

Remember to visit Ann at Anncoo Journal to check out all her creative, beautiful and mouth-watering recipes! Enjoy and have a great week ahead!

Ouuu, so that's what the beautiful heart shape bites are! It's pretty!Mooncake fest is also a Korean thanksgiving weekend fest, it's like the equivalent of Chinese new year in Korea. Looks like you had a blast with the gals! ;)

Hi Lyn! Thanks for sharing happy family moments with us! You have a beautiful family and your daughters are lucky to have a mom like you!! I've never seen heart shape mooncake before and I thought it's so you! ;-) I love the modern version of mooncake!

Lyn I still can't get over how beautiful these moon cakes are! Reading your post made me miss the good times we had back at Taiwan. My family would walk around to open areas in town and admire the moon, and my parents would warn us to NOT point at the moon, for she might get mad at us for the disrespect and come slice our ears in the middle of the night. Weird huh? Anyway, I am so glad you shared the recipe, maybe one day I will be brave enough to make them also.

Those are all fantastic, Lyn! My fave though are the ones you made for your in-laws. They are super pretty because the filling shows through. Besides, I love lotus seed paste so extra filling is always good. Hope you enjoy the festival.

@Kath (My Funny Little Life) Tks Kath! ;DFor this snowskin mooncakes, we can just eat it bcoz it's cooked glutinous rice flour that we used but I bought the wrong flour, so I steamed it for 15mins. The skin is quite similar to mochi. ;)

@Jeno Tks Jeno! ;D We were told the same story by my mom too but now she'd tell my gals and I'd keep pointing deliberately that pissed her off then I'll make funny faces to cool her down. Hee ;PTry it Jeno, this is really very easy and I'm sure your little gal would love it! ;D

@All That I'm Eating Hi, glad that you find Mid-Autumn Festival nice and interesting. ;DThis is one of the festivals great for friends and family gatherings. It's also a fun time for all children bcoz this is the only time that they're allowed to play with candles... ;)

@Adora's Box Tks Adora! ;DThose that I made for my in-laws tasted so much better too. I had my hubby to try one first before getting him to send the mooncakes over! lol ;PI really enjoyed (making the mooncakes) very much! ;D

Great outcome for a first timer, Lyn! It was so creative of you to make heart and hello kitty mooncakes!I am not a big fan of mooncakes...but during those years when I was working at China Bank in the Philippines, I enjoyed eating them everytime my Chinese officemates bring some to work during Mooncake Festival. :)Btw, you look so young in those pictures! You and your daughters are just like sisters.

Hi Lyn, I come personally to thank you for your visit and your kind comments. It must be my lucky day for you to stumble on my blog! hehe... I enjoy this post very much. I love seeing family spend time together creating memories. Your two princesses are so pretty, just like their mummy. Kudos to you having made such lovely snow skin mooncakes. I love the heart shape and I can see love shining through them. Can't wait to see what you are up to next. HUGS! or and HUGS to your girls too, please tell her it is from this yellow skin Quay Po from Kuala Lumpur.

@Tina (PinayInTexas) Tks Tina! ;DI'm the opposite, I LOVE mooncakes, all kinds but snowskin is my fave. Thank you for the compliments! Maybe it's my short bangs that made me looked young and I'm always in tops and denim shorts.. ;P

@Quay Po Cooks Hi Quay Po, thank you so much for visiting and all your sweet & kind compliments! Truly appreciated! ;DI'm glad that you enjoyed this post. I love family and relative gatherings very much bcoz I feel that it's the best time for us to get closer especially when all of us have got our own family/kids. So I'll always try my very best to set days/time aside for them. ;)You're just so sweet! Thanks for your hugs and I'll tell my gals it's from a very lovely, pretty and modern (from the very bottom of my heart) Aunt in KL! ;) Have a great weekend!

@Manuela TKS, Manu! ;DI'm so glad you enjoyed this post. You never fail to brighten up my day with your sweetest and kind comments! ;)Actually the snowskin's texture is quite similar to mochi and the lotus paste's to mashed potato but is sweet. So if you like both mochi and mashed potato, maybe you'd like mooncakes. ;)

All your mooncakes look very pretty! You are very creative in using the egg molds to make them. Those are especially cute for the little kids. I am sure they love it :)

Thanks for sharing the pictures of the paper lanterns and the new battery powered ones. The latter is definitely safer for the kids but I still like the paper ones I grew up with. They are very pretty!

@Biren Tks Biren! ;DYes, they love those cute cartoon mooncakes but not the skin tho... bcoz I used the wrong flour and also too thick for the first batch. ;PI'm glad you like these paper lanterns. Maybe I should keep a look out for 'em next year again to add in to my collections! Haha!

Hi Lyn, thanks for the wonderful comment left on my pumpkin granola bars. if your girls don't like rolled oats I would suggest using wheat or rye flakes instead, but you may have to adjust the ratio of dry/wet ingredients. I can't quite tell you how much since I haven't use any of them yet. Hope this helps.

@Roxana GreenGirl Hi Roxana, thank you very much for your visit to reply me on your pumpkin granola bars. Greatly appreciated! ;) That's alright, no worries about the measurements of the ingredients. I'll try to adjust when I try making them. Hope you have a great weekend! ;)

@Xinmei @ Pudding Pie Lane Hi Xinmei, nice to know you. ;)Thank you for your time visiting and also your sweet kind words. You flattered me! I'm sure you can make your own mooncakes too and I believe they'll turn out much more nicer than mine with your fantastic creativity skills! ;DHope you've a great week!

I wish I had a mid-Autumn festival in my town that was nearly as cool as yours! Looks like you guys had a wonderful time. The moon cakes are adorable, thanks for introducing them to me, I am intrigued now. Have a good one! =]

Lyn, I can't believe that I missed your mooncakes. I first saw mooncakes when Kristy from My Little Space made them, then Ann on her blog. I was obsessed with wanting to make mooncakes...even though we don't have an awesome Mooncake Mid-Autumn Festival here, and I have never tried one before. It took me a year (mostly because of not finding lotus paste and a few other ingredients around here) So I finally made a mooncake with fruits and nuts with chocolate skins! Yours turned out so nice, I am loving the egg molds (which I have) such a clever idea for mooncakes. You sound like me we tend to improvise! :)

I loved seeing the photos of your family and your girls are having such fun!

I just wanted to answer your question on the egg and toast cups. The original recipe was made in muffin tins, so yes muffin tins would work great for your family. If you click on it from my blog or go to The Steamy Kitchen to see the original recipe made in muffin tins. I made them in the little dishes just for my small family and I wanted to use my ramekins :) They are fun to make with kids cuz you can add what they like!

@Lyndsey Aw! Thank you so much, Lyndsey for your time and thoughtfulness asking my question here! Sincerely appreciated that and your sweetest comment too! ;DWow! Your creative and unique fruits and nuts with chocolate skin mooncakes (we have the 5 grains filling mooncakes) sound so inviting and tempting! Do you have any post on that? Maybe I should try doing another type of improvised mooncake? Haha! ;PWishing you and your family a Happy and fantastic Halloween! ;D

@The InTolerant Chef Tks so much for your time visiting and your sweetest comment, Kris! ;)I'd love to see your lovely creations for mooncakes in future if you make them! Hope you've a wonderful day! ;D

♥♡♥Me♥♡♥

SAHM of two girls, 11yrs and 7yrs whom I call Darling (Messy) and Baby (Cheeky) respectively.
I love cooking--recreating and trying out new dishes. My family is my most loyal and die-hard fans especially my two lovely girls! They love EVERYTHING I cook for them (because I always cook all their favorite food! LOL)
Just picked up a new interest in bento-ing and is still learning！♥‿♥